Date-stamped : 14 Jun95 - 06:24 West Indies v England, First Test, Headingly, June 8,9,10,11 1995 Day 1 Report: Atherton puts brave face on day of frustration for both parties CHRISTOPHER MARTIN-JENKINS WHENEVER the weather allowed, which was all too seldom, the cricket at Headingley was compelling. On the first day of a series which promises much, play was interrupted seven times by showers sweeping in over the red chimneys and slate roofs of Kirkstall. England, put into bat, made 148 for four from a mere 46 overs; Ian Bishop, on his first day in Test cricket since April 1993, took two for 16 and Mike Atherton, with another innings of high quality, scored 81. Nobody particularly appreciated the rain, but it was hardest of all for batsmen constantly having to make a fresh start. It was almost equally frustrating for bowlers getting little chance to establish a rhythm, for a hardy crowd, for a groundstaff constantly hauling covers on and off and for the umpires, Harold Bird inevitably one of them. If the showers were not sufficient irritation for that estimable neurotic, Headingley obliged with one of its specialities, the blocked drain which creates a puddle in the middle of a bowler`s run- up. Ten months ago, Atherton responded to the deep torment which followed the soil-in-the-pocket affair at Lord`s by making a dogged 99 against South Africa at Headingley. It took him 321 minutes and it seemed very much in character. Since then, a further dimension has been added to his cricket. The accomplished, steady, cautious batsman has become one who has realised his ability to command even the best bowling. Not that the West Indies in the field yesterday were quite at their best. Fortune tends in cricket to favour not so much the brave as the confident and Curtly Ambrose, still looking for his second wicket of the tour, has lost a little of his. His length was perhaps a foot too short and in his first spell his line was too wide of the off-stump. Kenneth Benjamin had his rewards for bowling a fuller length than the others, Courtney Walsh especially, but his line was variable. Bishop was the most dangerous and England can be grateful that his chance to bowl down the slope with the wind over his right shoulder was delayed by Richie Richardson until the afternoon. The measure of chances taken or dropped in Test cricket is incalculable. Three slip catches were dropped, none of them easy but already it looks likely that the match will be won by the team who hold their catches. As predicted, there is considerable bounce in the pitch and Atherton believes it will get quicker so, hard as it was to leave out Angus Fraser, the presence of Devon Malcolm will be comforting to England when their turn comes. If his one-day innings at Lord`s was not sufficient proof of Atherton`s determination to be positive, yesterday`s, in conditions inviting introspection, certainly was. The pitch had sufficient pace and bounce to suit tall and powerful fast bowlers and Atherton, the tea interval included, had to take guard no fewer than eight times before finally an exultant Bishop found his outside edge after 47 overs of fierce concentration. Somehow he achieved an almost perfect balance between aggression and circumspection. Whenever he was given the chance to score he took it, cuffing the ball away square off the back foot when it was pitched short and wide, or tapping it to leg for the ones and twos which kept the scoreboard moving. His share of an opening stand of 52 with Robin Smith was 31 and only Graeme Hick, emerging from a nervous start to bat with authority after lunch before falling to the catch of the day, matched him for authority. Smith was dropped at second slip in the fifth over off the luckless Ambrose, playing forward to a ball which flew rapidly off the shoulder of the bat into and out of Carl Hooper`s normally reliable hands. He succumbed 11 overs later, at 52, caught at third slip by Richardson as he cut at a ball which came back and cramped him for room. Benjamin might have followed his success with another in his next over but Atherton, then 34, edged fast and low to the right of a diving Richardson. Hick`s innings had been interrupted three times and was burgeoning when he failed quite to get on top of another searing cut and saw Sherwin Campbell, at backward point, cling to a brilliant catch low to his right. Thorpe, with only 147 in seven first-class innings behind him, was tentative at first but he, too, was beginning to look settled after three more breaks in play when Bishop successfully appealed to umpire Venkataraghavan for leg-before despite the wide angle of his delivery from round the wicket. Thorpe had not moved beyond the popping crease, but there was no evidence that the ball had straightened. It was a close decision either way but there was no doubt in Bishop`s next over when bounce and fractional away movement gave Junior Murray the chance to dive to his right and put an end to three and a half hours of dedicated batting. Atherton dragged himself off and moments later, at 5.25pm, the covers were dragged back on for the last time. More => Test Match: Atherton and Lara find no demons in pitch PETER DEELEY ON A STOP-START FIRST DAY AT HEADINGLEY MICHAEL Atherton was a frustrated man last night after the stop- and-start day at Headingley, but Brian Lara could truly say that "nothing untoward" happened to him. England`s captain passed the half-century mark for the seventh time in 16 innings but once more failed to push on to his century. His reaction to being out off the day`s last ball: "I would rather score 80 than nought." Lara took time out to describe as "nonsense" suggestions that he is the subject of a voodoo curse back in the Caribbean, then spent an uneventful day at first slip seeing nothing more menacing than the occasional edge. He said: "When you are a high-profile sportsman you seem to be a target for strange stories. I`m not going to waste time concerning myself with it." West Indies tour manager Wes Hall described the events surrounding Lara`s gift of land in Trinidad as "a diabolical piece of mischief-making" by local politicians. Atherton spent the seven breaks "trying to wind down" between restarts. "It`s not easy in these conditions keeping one`s concentration. You must take guard every time and start again. "You have to switch off in between. If you stay too tense all day you put yourself under too much pressure." Atherton`s view was that if he had won the toss he would have batted first. "It`s a difficult toss for any captain to win here. You go with your gut feeling but you never quite know whether that is going to be right or wrong. There were good reasons for batting and for bowling today." He described the decision to leave Angus Fraser out as "touch and go". "It wasn`t easy, there was no massive case for one bowler or the other. Playing Devon Malcolm gives us a bit more edge in pace. "If you had left him out the attack would have been a bit samey. The other guys came into consideration because of the need for runs down the order." Atherton found the pitch to have "a surprising amount of pace but I wasn`t totally surprised at the way the ball went through. There is a bit of moisture underneath but a firmish surface. As the game goes on it could get a bit quicker". His final thought was for the crowd. "If these conditions were frustrating for us - batsmen, bowlers and fielders - it certainly wasn`t very enjoyable for the spectators." Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http:://ww.telegraph.co.uk) ===> Day 2, 09 June 1995 West Indies poised to turn screw after reckless England`s collapse CHRISTOPHER MARTIN-JENKINS ON THE SECOND DAY`S PLAY THE West Indies utterly outplayed England in the first two sessions of a vibrant second day at Headingley yesterday. Inspired by their Trinidadians, Ian Bishop and Brian Lara, they went ahead of England`s woefully inadequate first-innings total of 199 soon after tea with seven wickets in hand. Some admirably controlled and subtly varied spin bowling by Richard Illingworth, and an honest start by Peter Martin to what promises to be an effective Test bowling career, have kept the home side in the game, but if the West Indies can add significantly to their lead of 37 this morning, they should justify the odds of 7-2 on their winning this opening Test. England sowed their own seeds of potential defeat in a disastrous morning in which they lost their last six wickets in an hour and 12 minutes and then played into the hands of Lara and Sherwin Campbell by failing to bowl the disciplined length which Headingley always has and always will require. The weather improved in the afternoon but in the continuing fresh temperature the ball hardly swung. Devon Malcolm, bowling with no rhythm, conceded seven runs an over and Darren Gough was off the field for more than two hours after straining a muscle in his suspect back. If England`s selection of Illingworth was fully justified, the preference for two aggressive fast bowlers ahead of Angus Fraser or, still more, Dominic Cork, was not. The latter had proved his effectiveness against the left-handers during the one-day internationals but here Lara, Jimmy Adams and Keith Arthurton each prospered in turn. Only Martin swung the ball significantly yesterday - once he was given the Kirkstall Lane End he quite out-bowled Phil DeFreitas - and only he and Illingworth gave the left-handers any trouble. Ducks for Carl Hooper and Richie Richardson took the gilt off the West Indian gingerbread. A long tail beckons the England bowlers if they can swiftly break the overnight pairing of Arthurton and Junior Murray, and a new ball is due in 14 overs. Bishop began yesterday`s frantic first session by picking up three more wickets to add to his two in the last three balls of the first day. It took his wicket-taking spell to five in 18 balls. A man of natural grace and modesty, his Christian faith has sustained him in a long and diligent battle to get himself fit for Test cricket. With Andy Roberts` assistance he has learned to swing the ball away with a more open action than his original one. He expressed himself as being "quite pleased with the way things went. I was relieved just to be back in Test cricket, although the five wickets were a bonus." Indeed they were, both for himself and for a team who missed his exceptional quality in the recent series against Australia. Bishop bowled fast and straight but England`s problems were exacerbated by reckless and dimwitted cricket. Mark Ramprakash was the first to go, much as Robin Smith and Graeme Hick had done on the first day, cutting hard but with his weight wrongly distributed as the ball bounced just too high and too quickly for him to keep it down. Campbell, having a distinguished first Test in England, held another good catch at deep gully. Two overs later another three England wickets had gone, all to badly executed or poorly conceived strokes. Alec Stewart attempted his favourite clip through mid-wicket to a ball which straightened to take the outside edge and flew straight to second slip, whereupon the local hero entered, determined to justify the cheers of support. Gough protests that he is not a second Ian Botham, in which case he would do well to reflect upon the fact that even the first one almost always came off second best when he tried to take on the West Indies fast bowlers. Bishop pitched his first ball short and Gough, expecting him to do so, duly - or unduly - hooked. His shot came from the meat of the bat, but within reach of the lofty Ambrose, who ran 10 yards to his left and held the ball two-handed in front of his face at long-leg. Ambrose celebrated by taking his overdue first wicket as Martin, nerves no doubt a-jangle, pulled at a ball insufficiently short. DeFreitas, playing stylishly and intelligently, found a partner equally prepared to use his head and he and Illingworth put on 42 for the ninth wicket before Kenneth Benjamin picked up the last two wickets and the West Indies reply began 40 minutes before lunch. Malcolm bowled the first ball of the innings at Hooper`s off stump. It lifted and Hooper edged it straight to Graham Thorpe at first slip. Mayhem followed as Lara and Campbell put on 63 in nine overs. Cutting, gliding and pulling, Lara was dazzling. Having hit 10 fours in a fifty reached off only 40 balls, he seemed to be settling into something really substantial when Illingworth tempted him down the pitch and a wild drive merely sliced a catch high to Hick`s left hand at slip. From 95 for two after 18 overs the game returned to something more like a normal rate of progress. Adams settled to a typically controlled Test innings while Campbell, moving his feet nimbly on the back foot, was brutally dismissive of anything short. A first Test century was looking possible when he played a ball to the right of mid-off where DeFreitas picked up one-handed and hit the stumps directly. This was a bonus. Atherton had effectively been reduced to a choice between Martin and DeFreitas from the top end with Illingworth wheeling tidily and resourcefully up the slope. Martin, warned by umpire Venkataraghavan more than once for following through too straight, created sufficient rough for Atherton to replace him with Hick and it worked, even if not quite in the way intended. Adams swept him in the air to backward square-leg where Martin flung himself to his right to take a superb catch. Thus inspired, he trapped the hapless Richardson in front as, yet again, he hit across the line and paid the penalty. Apart from a couple of reckless strokes against Illingworth, however, both of which he was lucky to survive, Arthurton was both responsible and accomplished. Much may depend on how long he stays this morning. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) ===> Day 3, 10 June 1995 Sorry England reeling again BOWLERS ON TOP AS WEST INDIES ARE WHISKED OUT THEN HIT BACK REPORTS SCYLD BERRY ON THE THIRD DAY AT HEADINGLEY AS SIGNIFICANT an act as any in this opening Test match occurred shortly before the official start. After the West Indians had finished their loosening exercises, they all embraced and shook hands, Jamaican with Trinidadian, Afro- Caribbean with Indian, those in the side with those not favoured. The West Indians, so far, are pulling together again, and England are sorely suffering the effects of this re-unification. When rain called a halt after tea time, England were 26 runs ahead with four wickets gone, not doomed but ailing, and needing 100 more even to panic the tourists in their run- chase. On a pitch which has been pale and even of bounce, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, Ian Bishop and Kenneth Benjamin, have all performed at a more threatening level than the best English bowler. That is the way it is going to be in this series: England will no doubt lose a couple of matches to superior force. But if they can hang on, there will be times when the West Indian batting folds and England can nip in for a victory or two of their own. At least yesterday was a bowling day for both sides, England whisking out the latter half of the West Indian first innings even more cheaply than they lost their own top order in their second. Sunny forecasts went as unfulfilled as a plea for sobriety to the Western Terrace. All day long, grey cloud glowered, and Ray Illingworth wore a sheepskin coat to guard against the cold -and perhaps the chilling reflection that some selections have gone wrong. On the other hand, this game might not have gone into a fourth day at all but for the gloom and the rain which halted play at 4.22. All three West Indian slip fielders, normally as safe as they are nonchalant, have dropped catches, and Keith Arthurton made a bad miss off Thorpe at cover when England had only just limped into the lead. In their second innings, as in their first, England have found that five specialist batsmen are insufficient -or five and a half, if we charitably classify Alec Stewart so highly when he is made to keep wicket. This pack of batsmen needs not to be changed but reshuffled, so that opening batsman open - nothing else - and middle-order batsmen bat in the middle order. For all Richard Illingworth`s canny control, and dismissal of Brian Lara, the bowling balance may not have been right either. Four steady seamers - including either Devon Malcolm or Darren Gough, not both -and six specialist batsmen and a keeper, while not ideal, had to be the best formula for a low-scoring game. There is nothing to be done with working totals of 200, or 199: the three series of complete West Indian domination over England in the mid-Eighties proved that. The mopping-up went conveniently enough for England. Their seam bowlers were more disciplined after a night`s sleep, and lecturing: or, rather, Phillip DeFreitas joined Peter Martin in being disciplined. The five outstanding West Indian wickets went down for 46 runs. Seldom has Mike Atherton been accused of over-attacking in the field, but there was a suggestion that he did so when the West Indian top order was batting on Friday. May it not have been solely to impress the chairman of selectors that Atherton crowded Lara`s bat. Four tight maidens from DeFreitas and Martin at the outset yielded the wicket of Junior Murray, to an uppish off- drive. Keith Arthurton, similarly constrained, tried to steer to the vacancies at third man. The exceptions to England`s rule of a fuller length were the bouncers served up to the West Indian fast bowlers, by Martin and by Gough when he finally took the second ball. Kenny Benjamin had effectively told Malcolm that there would be no mercy for tail-enders, and England`s pace bowlers dared to follow suit. Tied down by the short ball as opposed to the length one, Ambrose and Walsh swatted skywards, and Stewart took a second catch. It is a temptation when he can just pull on the gloves and keep as well as anyone when standing back - one to be resisted. Ambrose was stung into steaming in for a couple of overs before lunch, partly by his running out of Bishop (it is reassuring that the media are not alone in finding it difficult to communicate with Curtly). Ambrose, elbows working from the Kirkstall Lane end, outswung the ball at the start of England`s second innings, and the sixth wicket of the session fell when Smith cut straight to cover. After lunch, a ferocious contest ensued, the sides exchanging big, sometimes knock-out punches. There was not much in the way of compromise between bouncers and boundaries. In a stand of 49 with Hick, Atherton was, if not the junior then the slower-scoring partner: before this season that would have been a platitude, but not now. The captain has become an initiative- seeker as well as a hanger-on. Atherton`s partiality for the back-foot force a la Boycott has served him well here. To variations on the square-cut, Smith (twice), Hick, Ramprakash and Stewart have fallen - a high toll among the specialist batsmen - and Thorpe was dropped when 26, square-cutting Bishop to Arthurton, all unhinged by the steeper bounce of taller bowlers. Atherton`s dismissal was also notable for it being to a defensive stroke. All batsmen in this Test except three (Atherton, Thorpe and Hooper) have been out to attacking shots - or four if you count Malcolm as a batsman. Maybe adrenalin has forced England`s players across the border from assertion to over-aggression. Walsh, from the football stand end, made a ball hold up against the slope to have Atherton caught behind. Hick followed in the next over: he had pulled Bishop in front of square, twice to the boundary, but this time hooked a faster ball, slightly wider of off-stump, and was never in control. Ambrose and Bishop came from Kirkstall, Walsh and Benjamin up the slope. With the ease of over-ripe fruit, wickets have been falling to Kenny Benjamin, Stewart adding his name when he in turn miscued his square cut. As so often happens, Thorpe needed especial luck to get out of a run of bad form. Having missed his pull, he saw the ball bounce off the base of his stumps, and took it as cue that he was back in business. He crashed Bishop behind square before the rain set in, and Ramprakash added a worthy hook at Benjamin. More of the same, setting a target above 150, and the new cohesion of the West Indian batting can still be tested. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) ===> Day 4, 11 June 1995 England hit the self-destruct button again CHRISTOPHER MARTIN-JENKINS SEES STYLISH LARA AND HOOPER EASE REJUVENATED WEST INDIES TO NINE-WICKET VICTORY IN FOUR DAYS ONCE AGAIN the not very good ship England has hit the quay before reaching the open sea. For the sixth series in seven they lost the opening match when soon after five o clock on the fourth day at Headingley, in a blaze of glorious strokeplay by their two most exciting batsmen, Brian Lara and Carl Hooper, the West Indies won by nine wickets. Vulnerable they may have been, but there was never a time when the West Indies were not more or less in control of the first Test. They won it in the end very much more easily than had seemed likely when England restricted their first innings lead to 83 on Saturday. Moreover, they accomplished with ease and style the theoretically tricky task of scoring 126 on a pitch on which their own fast bowlers, in cold, cloudy weather, had been darting the ball around at pace. They scored 129 in 19 overs. Too many England batsmen got themselves out, choosing the wrong ball to hit; too much of the bowling broke what should be the first and inviolate commandment, that there is no substitute for accuracy. By contrast, Hooper`s 74 not out off 72 balls underlined how smoothly everything has fallen into place for a hitherto struggling touring team in the last few days. After Hooper`s first ball dismissal in the first innings, it was important that he should have made his mark as an opening batsman and with nine fours and four sixes, he did so in style. Equally, it was important that Ian Bishop should have a successful return to Test cricket. His match figures of seven for 113 were sufficient to earn him Cornhill`s man-of-the-match award. Ray Illingworth made it the first plank of his policy that England must have five bowlers. Yet the West Indies bowled England out for 199 and 208 despite one of their four bowlers, Kenneth Benjamin, breaking down in the second innings. They also dropped three catches in each innings, including England`s top scorer, Graham Thorpe, when he had made only 26 on Saturday afternoon. England would have been 88 for five if Arthurton, at cover point, had sighted that chance early enough. The West Indies still won in a fair imitation of Lammtarra in 20 minutes under three hours` playing time. Only the batting form of their captain Richie Richardson remains to furrow Caribbean brows, but his anxieties will have been so greatly eased by winning this first match by nine wickets that it would be no surprise to see him discovering his elusive confidence when the second Test at Lord`s, England`s unlucky ground, begins on Thursday week. So bleak is the prospect for England that they will probably win. The promise of Peter Martin`s first Test performance, although even this was only a relative success (21 runs in two innings and match figures of two for 97), is really the only consolation England could take down the motorway from Leeds last night. This, of course, and the reflected glory of the altogether stauncher performance of their Rugby-playing counterparts. When Graham Thorpe drove Curtly Ambrose defiantly over mid-off even as Rory Underwood was bursting over for a try yesterday morning, it was possible for a crowd of 10,700 to imagine a double success. Realistically, however, having lost Smith, Hick and Stewart to badly-executed attacking shots on Saturday and, even more importantly, Atherton to a defensive one, the only remaining hope lay in a major stand by Thorpe and Ramprakash. So much did Ambrose and, especially, Courtney Walsh, move the ball about after night and morning rain which had delayed the start by an hour, this was always unlikely. Walsh it was who took the two England wickets in the hour before lunch, hitting Ramprakash`s off stump with an outswinger of full length to which the batsman went back - and then having Phil DeFreitas caught at mid-on as he mistimed a waft to leg. Last year on this ground Brian McMillan, the type of genuine Test all-rounder about whom Ray Illingworth can only dream, produced a long innings after South Africa, facing a total of 477, had been 105 for five. There was no-one now to stay with Thorpe although Darren Gough, Peter Martin and Richard Illingworth, all bowlers who can bat, did their best in circumstances which became even more demanding when Bishop returned to the attack from the Kirkstall Lane end. Thorpe, in fact, played some dashing and defiant strokes, pulling, cutting and hooking Bishop for three of the seven fours in a 50 which, true to the trend in Australia, made him, after Atherton, England`s most convincing - and convinced - batsman. Three overs after lunch, however, Walsh took his third wicket of the day when a ball pitched on Thorpe`s leg stump cut away to take the top outside edge. That England added a further 56 for the last three wickets was due to batting by Martin and Gough which was both spirited and level-headed, a combination the specialists above them had been unable to manage. So well did Hooper bat, after Atherton, diving to his right at third slip had caught Campbell in the third over from a Martin outswinger, that England in their turn seemed to bowl nothing but long- hops and half-volleys. He hit nine fours and four sixes, no doubt relieved not to have to face Devon Malcolm until he was set. Hindsight says that Atherton took the wrong option in giving the new ball to the theoretically steadier DeFreitas. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)